Flatlined

Ever since my blog has changed addresses, for personal reasons, I have had the fun and enjoying time of watching my number of views just flatline. I am not saying that this is something I truly wanted to watch happen with my blog, but I am interested in the whole experience. What happened to all of the google searches that brought random people here? What happened to my artwork being viewed? Nothing, it just disappeared...

Up Late with an Idea

"She Waits by the Cherry Tree in the Rain"

I never conceived the idea that within one post of talking about my families cherry tree in our backyard that I would actually be talking about a cherry tree again. Except, this time I want to show off a slightly different type of cherry tree, one that I found while browsing the internet and then decided to photoshop until I thought it looked both different and artistically beautiful enough to show off. In total, I must have cropped together seven photographs to make the following, through the obvious ones are fairly easy. And from there, I had to go through constant editing to make sure that things reflected, other parts looked right, and everything blended together. To say I spent some time would be a bit of an understatement.

Anyway, the quote included below my masterpiece after a few hours of being in photoshop is one that I actually came up with. I thought the quote keeps things simple, diverting attention to what I would like everyone to notice while not completely killing the idea behind what I originally had intended by this piece. On instagram, that is what I wrote before submitting this. And now I get to wait and see as a flood of likes come in from all directions, though not that I am complaining...

A Big Day for A Bigger Puppy

Today was a rather big day for our little girl. First, she was in puppy training class where she learned absolutely nothing new that my Mom and I have been working on her on. However, I think my Dad might have learned a thing or two while in class.

Our Puppy and her new Red Snake Toy

Then she got to play with a brand new snake toy that my Mom bought for her while at the store. The reason we got this snake toy for her was because my friend Jodi had showed us a toy that had several squeakers in it and so we thought our dog would enjoy that one as well. At first she was scared to really bite down on her toy, her jaw gently and firmly holding her red snake as she carried it around the house. We had to start rough housing with her just to get her to start biting at the different squeakers. After a while, she was so into attacking the snake that we could almost get her flipping (literally, jumping into the air and flipping) to get at the toy. Still, the squeakers are sort of hard for her to bite down on and she loves that toy. Every now and then we can see her licking it like she cares about the snake, weird.

And then the real fun started as my Father started chopping down the final parts of our cherry tree. I took a video of him taking down that final part in his special outfit that reminds my Mom and me of "Bob the Builder" from one of the kid cartoon networks. 

Chopping down the Cherry Tree

Afterwards, we let the dog outside to inspect that yard work that had been performed. She was not pleased at all with what my Dad had done, and verbally told us that the changes were unasked for and not part of her landscaping idea. So of course I took a video of that as well, our whole family laughing as we watched her inspect and reinspect the now fallen tree. My Dad pointed out during this that it was interesting that if she remodeled the backyard then what happened was fine, but if any of us remodeled her play area we were overstepping our bounds. Later, my Mother and I would discuss how she did seem quite upset when we last moved around stones and cut branches off of some of the other bushes in the yard, simple procedures and what not. Still, she's a funny puppy!

Puppy Reaction to Chopped Down Cherry Tree

The Blue Eyed Wolf

I may not have been actively blogging as I was about a month ago, but that is because I have become a little bit busy with random things in my life. For one, I went to a career fair not to long ago and have been since back to looking for a job. I know, that sounds weird because I technically never stopped looking. All that I mean by that is that I have yet again super-intensified my search for a short period of time to see if results follow.

I also have been on puppy duty quite a lot, which means taking her for walks and playing with her constantly. If she is not being entertained, then she has to be either out in the backyard or in her kennel napping. I do not like either of those options, so I tend to actually be an active baby sitter with my dog. That means a lot of nice, long walks for the untrained puppy and a lot of thrown blue objects. There is something about the color blue that just attracts her.

And beyond that I have been in a constant, dire need for new music and clubbing. I have seriously spent over twenty-four hours searching the internet for new music to listen to. If I find a single song I like, that is nice, but I am searching for the jackpot of songs to listen to. A full album would be nice, that would at least take me some time to learn everything and become bored of, but those are far and rare. So then I take my newfound addictions out with friends and we go clubbing in Denver or Boulder. Good times had by all.

The Wild Winter Wolf

But last and definitely not least, I am back on the photoshop drug, working out some crazy awesome edits for photographs that really bring out the picture into a whole new light of oh my, amazing! Take for instance today's crazy photoshop expertise, in which I took an image of a wolf and worked to really bring out the snowy idea. Before the wolf had brown eyes and a really brown, thick coat. I worked hard to get rid of the brown and then fixed his eyes to match the background. From there it was really just working on the time consuming snow flakes and the "moons" as I call them. Everything was done by hand, I did not use brushes at all this time around. Also, just for reference, there were a tong of other color edits done along the way to really make the scene come together. Finally, slapped some text on the top right corner and called it good.

Anyway, we'll have to see what I come up with later...

Internetworkings

I wish people would stop being so rude on the internet, then maybe I would not have to get out photoshop and start pointing out things in the background. At any rate, I thought of sending him that message, but decided not to since there seems to be more than enough internet trash out there. And yes, I am including him and his responses as part of that internet trash. Still, taking that statement and editing it really made for a small batch of fun for me!

I would like to note that while I saw this first on a friends Facebook status update, the other person I am arguing with I have never met before. All I know is what that man foolishly posts on the internet, which was a lot more than he probably realizes. Anyway, until later!